Tomb Raider (2013)

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Tomb Raider

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Developers
Singleplayer	Crystal Dynamics
Multiplayer	Eidos Montreal
Publishers
	Square Enix
OS X	Feral Interactive
Engines
	Crystal Engine
Release dates
Windows	March 5, 2013
macOS (OS X)	January 23, 2014

This page is for the 2013 reboot. For the original, see Tomb Raider.

Key points

PC version features high resolution textures, tessellation, high quality shadows and more PC specific features.

Forcing DirectX 9 mode results in an approximately 25% performance boost at a small loss of visual fidelity.

Game is poorly optimized on Nvidia GPUs, TressFX causes a huge performance loss in these video cards and "ULTRA" SSAO setting stands for HDAO, wich is AMD's form of ambient occlusion and causes a big performance loss too.

Many quick time events (QTEs) do not display the key required to complete them. See QTE streamlining for a guide.

You should NOT set this game's graphics to its maximum settings, you should set "SSAO" setting to "NORMAL", because "ULTRA" stands for HDAO, and "NORMAL" stands for SSAO, that makes a bigger difference, does have bigger shadow casts and more objects seems to be affected, even causing a smaller performance loss, and set "HIGH PRECISION" option off, because it does not make any noticeable graphical difference, even causing a big performance loss.

Even with PS4/XONE version being called "Definitive Edition", it still loses for PC version in some aspects, with texture resolution noticeably lower in some cases, a much more spare use of motion blur, and total absence of tessellation. Considering this, running the game with graphics maxed out in DirectX 9 mode on PC should be graphically equivalent to Definitive Edition's graphics (except for TressFX that is only available in DirectX 11).

General information

Official game site

Official Forums - not PC-specific.

Lara Croft Wiki - A detailed wiki for the Tomb Raider series

Steam Community Discussions

Steam Users' Forums for game series

Availability

All Windows versions require Steam.

Version differences

The Tomb Raider GOTY Edition does not include the following DLC: Agility Skill, Animal Instinct, Headshot Reticule, Pistol Burst, Pistol Silencer.

Japanese language support is only available in Japan and requires a separate purchase or the Japan Tomb Raider GOTY Edition.

Essential improvements

Skip game launcher

Instructions

Game data

In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location

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System	Location
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/203160/pfx/

Most graphics settings in the registry corresponds with .ini options for benchmark.

Save game data location

Template:Game data/rowTemplate:Game data/row

System	Location
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/203160/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud

Video settings

File:Tomb raider setup.png

Setup utility.

In-game general video settings.

In-game advanced video settings.

Field of view (FOV)

FoV is calculated from aspect ratio, therefore running the game at a custom resolution will result in a custom FoV.

Nvidia information is hypothetical at this point.

Notes about this fix

This way of altering the field of view will allow the player to regain some sense of peripheral vision, without altering the ratio between character height and image height. This preserves to some extent the original intention underlying the frame composition.

There is no distortion of the picture.

The image will effectively be cropped (Vert-). Black bars will appear at the top and bottom of the screen.

Having to change the desktop resolution each time is not convenient.

Instructions

Result

• Tomb raider fov 1920 1200.jpg

  Default resolution (1920×1200).

• Tomb raider fov 1920 817.jpg

  Custom resolution (1920×817).

Force DirectX 9 renderer on DirectX 11 systems

Forcing DirectX 9 will result in better performance. However DirectX 11 specific features (tessellation, TressFX) will be disabled.

Instructions

Performance difference between DirectX 9 and 11 renderer

Based on ingame benchmark with DirectX 11 features (tessellation, TressFX) disabled for both renderers.

	DirectX 9	DirectX 11	Difference [%]
Minimum FPS	42.06	35.88	17.22%
Maximum FPS	66.04	52.68	25.36%
Average FPS	56.68	44.74	26.69%

Tested on Intel i7 with HD6870 GPU, average of five measurements for each renderer.

Input settings

In-game key map settings.

In-game mouse/keyboard settings.

In-game gamepad settings.

The gamepad layout for Tomb Raider (2013)

Issues unresolved

Separate vertical and horizontal sensitivity with mouse

Vertical and horizontal sensitivity do not match, with vertical being much lower, making it hard to aim with a mouse and keyboard.

Audio settings

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Arabic
Brazilian Portuguese
Czech
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Japanese				Requires Japanese Language Pack DLC. Windows only.
Korean
Polish
Russian
Spanish
Traditional Chinese

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
LAN play
Online play

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Issues fixed

Low framerate

Instructions

Flickering and crashing with SLI or CrossFire

Instructions

Crashing to desktop and issues with minimizing game

Instructions

Static noise from music and ambient sound in the game

Instructions

Other information

QTE streamlining

Tomb Raider is heavy on quick time events (QTEs), which can be sometimes annoying.

QTEs in Tomb Raider does not display key name but rather monochrome icon associated with specific binding or QTE, which can be confusing and problematic to solve.

However, if you are actively using an Xbox 360 controller or other XInput-compatible controller, the game will display controller button names and colors as normal.

List of QTEs and possible solutions:

QTE Icon	Solution
Hand in red circle	Repeatedly press interact key (default E) as fast as possible.
Exclamation mark in red diamond.	Press melee key (default F).
White circle getting smaller	Tap repeatedly melee key (default F). This QTE is bugged - circle animation is out of sync with trigger behind QTE and therefore it is difficult win this QTE normally. Luckily there is no penalization for missing said trigger with key press so pressing melee key for whole duration of QTE works perfectly.
Left and right arrow	Alternately press left and right movement keys (default A and D).
Hand in red circle when Lara is hanging from ledge	Press interact key (default E).

Instructions

Benchmark mode

Benchmark mode generates a file named: benchmarkresults yyyy-mm-dd hh-mm-ss.txt

Instructions

Instructions

Instructions

Command line parameters

Command line parameter	Type of benchmark
-benchmark	Run the benchmark on startup and quit the game when finished.
-benchmarkini “filename.ini”	Run the benchmark on startup and quit the game when finished. The ini file contains overrides for quality settings.
-loop	Loop the benchmark instead of quitting after it completes. This is a demo mode, so statistics are disabled.
-dxdiag	Include dxdiag information in the benchmarkresults file.

When running from the command line, exclusive fullscreen is automatically switched on and vsync is switched off.

When running as a looping demo, a result file is not generated.

.ini file options

Option	Restrictions	Effect
QualityLevel	0 to 4	Sets all settings to a quality level. 0 for Low, 4 for Ultimate.
Fullscreen	0 or 1	Enables or disables fullscreen.
ExclusiveFullscreen	0 or 1	Enable this when fullscreen is enabled for better performance but worse multitasking.
AspectRatio	Width / height x 10000 or 0	Sets aspect ratio. 16000 for 16:10 for example.
VSyncMode	0 - 2	Options for vertical synchronization. 0 for Off, 1 for Double Buffer and 2 for Tripple Buffer.
FullscreenWidth	number	Width of resolution in pixels.
FullscreenHeight	number	Height of resolution in pixels.
FullscreenRefreshRate	number	Screen refresh rate in Hz.
StereoEnabled	0 or 1	Enables or disables stereoscopic support.
TextureQuality	1 to 4	Texture quality from Low to Ultra.
BestTextureFilter	0 to 18	Texture filtering - 0 for No Filtering, 1 for Bilinear, 2 for Trilinear, or 2 + the Anisotropic level.
HairQuality	0 or 1	Enables TressFX enhanced hair quality. 0 for Normal or 1 for TressFX.
AntiAliasingMode	0 to 3	Sets anti-aliasing level. 0 for none, 1 for FXAA, 2 for 2xSSAA and 3 for 4xSSAA.
ShadowMode	0 or 1	Enables or disables shadows.
ShadowResolution	0 to 2	Sets shadow resolution. 1 for Off, 2 for Normal and 3 for Ultra.
SSAOMode	0 to 2	Sets ambient occlusion quality. 1 for Off, 2 for Normal and 3 for Ultra.
DOFQuality	0 to 3	Sets depth of field quality. 1 for Off, 2 for Normal and 3 for Ultra.
ReflectionQuality	0 to 2	Sets quality of reflections. 1 for Off, 2 for Normal and 3 for High.
LODBias	0 to 4	Sets level of detail bias from Low to Ultra.
EnablePostProcess	0 or 1	Enables or disables post-processing effects.
EnableHighPrecisionRT	0 or 1	-
EnableTessellation	0 or 1	Enables or disables tessellation.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP3, Vista, 7, 8	Vista, 7, 8
Processor (CPU)	Dual core CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.1 GHz (4050+) Intel Core 2 Duo 1.86 GHz (E6300)	Quad core CPU, AMD Phenom II X2 565, Intel Core i5-750
System memory (RAM)
Hard disk drive (HDD)	12 GB
Video card (GPU)	AMD Radeon HD 2600 XT nVidia 8600 512 MB of VRAM DirectX 9 compatible	AMD Radeon HD 4870 nVidia GTX 480 1 GB of VRAM DirectX 11 compatible